THE (UNAUTHORIZED
UNOFFICIAL) OPEN GAMING LICENSE OGL D20 FAQ

Sponsored By Mana
Forge Games:

INTRODUCTION

Welcome
to the UN-authorized an UN-official Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ) for the
OGF-D20 Open Gaming License.This FAQ
was created largely from discussions and observation that occurred on the (now
defunct) Open Gaming Foundation LISTSERV – a mailing list that was created to
provide a forum for discussion of the Open Gaming License (OGL) and the D20
System Trademark License (D20 STL).The
LISTSERV was maintained for many years by the "Open Gaming
Foundation" – a non-existent and now-defunct organization administered by
Ryan S. Dancey, an executive at Wizards of the Coast (a brand of the Hasbro
Corporation).This FAQ is not authorized
by, nor in any way connected with, either Wizards of the Coast or the
(non-existent) Open Gaming Foundation.As of this writing, the remnants of the “foundation’s” website still
exist, and additional information, including copies of the latest versions of
both the OGL and the D20 STL can be obtained at http://www.opengamingfoundation.org/.

LEGAL
STUFF

Much of the material on
this page discusses legal issues such as copyrights and trademarks.The readers should be aware that the author
is not an attorney nor an expert in the field of copyright or trademark law,
and that the contents of this page do not constitute legal advice.Readers should be cautious not to rely on the
information as it is presented on this page as legal advice, and should obtain
the services of a qualified attorney if they do feel they need verifiable
advice concerning legal matters.

·"OGL",
"TSR", D&D", "D&D3E", and "D20" are
registered Trademarks of Wizards of the Coast, Inc.

D20
D&D SYSTEM REFERENCE DOCUMENT

As part
of the Open Gaming / D20 effort, Hasbro released much of the core Dungeons and
Dragons (D&D 3.5 Edition) core rules as open source.The totality of those open source files can
be downloaded at the links below:

F. SPECIFIC EXAMPLES

QUESTIONS
AND ANSWERS

A.GENERAL QUESTIONS ABOUT THE OPEN GAMING
LICENSE

A.01What is the Open Gaming License?

The
Open Gaming License (OGL) is a copyrighted document of Wizards of the Coast
(WotC), incorporated, finalized in 2001.The OGL presents a legal framework for distributing portions of a gaming
system and allowing other designers to use, modify, and make additions to that
system, without running afoul of copyright law.The essence of an Open Gaming License is that you can use, modify, and
distribute the covered content, but you must allow others to do the same.[Back to the Top]

A.02What is the Open Gaming foundation?

The
Open Gaming Foundation was a proposed non-profit organization that purported to
promote the development of open games and advocates for the concept of open
gaming in general.The Open Gaming
Foundation was supposedly a creation of Mr. Ryan Dancey, and as such had
indirect ties to Wizards of the Coast.It has been argued on the list that the Open Gaming Foundation is just
another marketing tool.

In
2006, after doing absolutely nothing with this “foundation” for over six years,
Mr. Dancey announced the closing of his list-serve and websites.As of this update, some remnants of his site
are still up and running at http://www.opengamingfoundation.org , but have not
been updated since 2003.

Many
observers believe that the Open Gaming Foundation was, in reality, simply a
distraction to divert attention from the fact that Hasbro / Wizards was using
(and perverting) the tenants of GNU General Public License to drum up interest
in their Dungeons & Dragons 3.5 products.This notion is partially supported by the release of D&D 4.0 and
Hasbro’s subsequent total discontinuance of any support for any open gaming
effort.[Back to the Top]

A.03What is Open Game Content?

Open
Game Content is any existing copyrighted game material that is specifically
designated by the copyright owner to be covered by the OGL - PLUS any
"Derivative Work" created that incorporates Open Game Content
directly in its design.If an author is
careful to identify which parts of his work use existing Open Game Content and
which parts are 100% original, then the author can retain the copyright to that
part of his original work that is not derivative of Open Gaming Content.

That
was the theory.

The
reality is that it is very easy, and became common practice, to write any “OGL”
product in such a way as to obfusticate any derivative work and to make that
product virtually useless for re-use.[Back to the Top]

A.04Isn’t the OGL just like the GNU Open Software Foundation's GPL?

The OGL
is modeled on the GNU Open Software License, but the Open Gaming License has
several glaring differences from the GNU's copyleft, most notably that the GNU
software foundation distributes all of their Intellectual Property (IP) under
their license with the belief that sharing in this fashion promotes a stronger
industry, while Hasbro used the OGL to define a very small subset of their IP
that could be used as “open”, with market dominance being their stated
objective.More importantly, Hasbro
inserted clauses into the OGL that made it virtually useless for fostering a
GPL-type community.[Back to the Top]

A.05Why a new OGL - isn't it just like GNU's "Free Documentation
License" released this past March?Why not use that?

According
to Mr. Dancey, the Open Gaming License is distinctly different from the GNU
"Free Documentation License."The GNU license is supposedly unwieldy due to its complexity and it does
not address the issue of maintaining contributor credit for work that goes into
the product.Finally, and perhaps most
importantly, the GNU Documentation License does not allow for documents that
are part free and part copyright.This
is a key concept that Mr. Dancey stated “to be critical to the success of this
effort”.[Back to the Top]

A.06Why is the OGL
copyrighted?

The OGL
is copyrighted so that it (and its terms) are not altered.This is not unusual as it is common in the
software industry for organizations working under an Open Software License to
copyright that license.[Back to the Top]

A.07What is Hasbro and/
or Wizards of the Coast (WotC)?

The
Hasbro corporation is the current owner of the Dungeons and Dragons (D&D)
intellectual property, having acquired it in their purchase of Wizards of the
Coast in September of 1999.

WotC
was a gaming product company that rocketed to stardom (and huge cash flows) by
inventing and selling the enormously popular “Magic: The Gathering” collectible
card game.WotC purchased TSR in 1997
primarily to keep TSR from going under.Wizards was itself purchased by the enormous game and toy company HASBRO
in September of 1999.

The
previous owner and CEO of Wizards used some of his gains to purchase the rights
to the Gaming Convention GENCON, which subsequently went Bankrupt in 2008.

In 2002
Hasbro dissolved Wizards as a separate business unit, eliminating many of the
original management staff and re-aligning the various products under a number
of Hasbro “Brand Managers”.Shortly
thereafter, Ryan Dancey was looking for work.

A.08What happened to
Wizards of the Coast / TSR?

Wow,
you are out of touch … TSR was purchased in 1998 by Wizards of the Coast.To a large extent this was primarily because
Wizards did not want the company to go bankrupt, and see the product line
disappear or languish.At the time, TSR
was in serious financial trouble.A
description of the buyout and of that financial trouble can be seen here: http://www.rpgplanet.com/dnd3e/tsr-rsd-0318.htm

Wizards
of the Coast was itself purchased by the enormous game and toy company HASBRO
in September of 1999.In 2002 Hasbro
dissolved Wizards as a separate business unit, eliminating many of their
management staff and re-aligning the various products under a number of Hasbro
“Brand Managers”.

A.09Isn’t this just an
evil corporate marketing ploy?

While
it IS freely acknowledged that the D20 STL is one of many marketing tools used
by WotC to promote sales of their D&D product line, this does not make it
necessarily evil.Companies (any company
– from the smallest gaming store to a giant conglomerate) are in business to
make money.Without that profit motive,
there would be no gaming industry, and very few published games.This fact that it is presented in this
fashion is not inherently evil.

However,
speculation on subsequent events has suggested that Hasbro acted in a truly
deceptive fashion to represent the OGL and the Open Gaming Foundation as
something that they were never truly intended to be.They made enormous quantities of money doing
so, and when the money ran out, dropped any shred of support for any “Open
Game” effort and released a new system without making it “open”.Small producers who got excited by the OGL
and who were not “insiders” bore the brunt of the losses for Wizard’s business
decisions.

That
notwithstanding, other people have speculated that the OGL, AS IT WAS
STRUCTURED was an elaborate plot by Mr. Dancey and others at Wizards to bring
D&D entirely into the open source realm.It remains to be seen as to whether that effort might or might not be
successful.[Back to the Top]

A.10Yes, but isn’t
Wizards now owned by Hasbro, and aren’t they a large corporation?

Since
2002, Wizards of the Coast no longer exists as a separate business unit.All decisions about products and marketing
are made by Hasbro on the basis of what will result in the maximum profit to
the Hasbro corporation.

A.11Isn’t the way this
is being presented somewhat deceptive?

In
perfect hindsight, the entire OGL effort can be seen as a marketing effort
masquerading as a “Open Source” initiative.The Open Gaming Foundation was a key part of that deception – since
presenting these materials under the guise of a “foundation” and under the domain“dot.org” (traditionally used by non-profit
organization) when in fact the whole deal is completely owned by an employee of
Wizards was extremely deceptive.However
through many online conversations both the ownership and the profit motive were
apparent, so very few people were actually deceived.Many people however (what has been referred
to as “the Slash-Dot Crowd”) were in fact alienated (even angered) by the
prospect of a supposedly “open” license being misrepresented in this fashion.

What
has been the most damaging (in particular for small producers) was the mistake
notion (some say outright mis-representation) that the effort was an “Open
Source” initiative that would foster an enduring “linux-like” community of
designers and developers.In reality,
the fundamentally flawed, “non-open” nature of the OGL license fostered greed,
paranoia, and a truckload of products where their open source nature was
intentionally and irretrievably broken.[Back to the Top]

A.12Who is/was Ryan
Dancey?

Ryan
Dancey was a Vice President at Wizards of the Coast and WAS the “Brand Manager”
for the D&D product line during the 3rd Edition kickoff.He is the architect of the OGL as it relates
to D20 and Wizards of the Coast.He grew
up playing D&D and speaks in very passionate terms about the continuing
existence of the core system, both from a game standpoint and a profitability
standpoint.

In 2004
Mr. Dancey was involved in a fair amount of controversy as an elected member of
the board of the Game Manufacturers Association (GAMA) – allegations of hacking
and manipulating the elections of that organization ultimately led to a messy
scandal and his untimely resignation from his position with GAMA.

After
being separated from Hasbro in 2002 during one of the many downsizings that
occurred there, Mr. Dancey founded an organization called “Organized Play” that
he was CEO of for some time.As of this
writing his website “organizedplay.com” is no longer active.

A.14Legally, what is
the effect of releasing my copyright gaming content under OGL?

There
are two related effects.The first is
that you are allowing other people to print and sell your work, provided they give
you proper credit.This is attractive
from a financial standpoint for one and only one reason - by creating a
“stripped down” version of your core product and releasing it as OGL, you can
encourage others to create works based on that system, while still holding on
to the most valuable parts.This will
tend to broaden your market because more people will be writing and playing in
your gaming system, and therefore more people will be likely to purchase your
products.This is exactly what WotC did
with the D20 STL and D20 SRD.

The second legal effect of releasing your copyright gaming content under OGL is
that you are effectively authorizing the creation of derivative works based on
the document that you release as OGL.This means that (by definition) you are giving up the right to claim
ownership(*) of those derived works.This can be a strong motivator for others to write in your system,
because they can now do so and still retain the copyrights to their own work.These copyright rules are clearly outlined
at:

A.16Is there any
available market research data on the RPG industry?

B.CONCERNING THE D20 SYSTEM TRADEMARK
LICENSE

B.01What is the D20 System Trademark License (STL)?

The D20
System Trademark License has been OFFICIALLY RESCINDED by the Hasbro corporation,
and can no longer be used.

The D20
STL was a different license from the OGL, provided by WotC to encourage game
producers to develop products that required the D&D Players' Handbook for
their use.It was nothing more than a
license to use a trademark..This
license allowed a publisher to incorporate Open Game Content provided by WotC,
and identify the source of that content with the "D20"
trademark.Publishers must adhere to the
rules of the STL in order to be eligible to use the "D20" trademark.WotC believes this effort will encourage game
producers to develop products that will require the D&D Players' Handbook
for their use.[Back to the Top]

B.02How did the D20 relate to the OGL?

The D20
System Trademark License has been OFFICIALLY RESCINDED by the Hasbro
corporation, and can no longer be used.

The
information in the D20 System Reference Document represents the parts of
D&D that Hasbro released as Open Content.Aside from that, D20 and OGL are unrelated.

The OGL is a license to copy, use, and distribute copyrighted work that has
been specifically placed in the status of Open Content, provided you adhere to
the rules of the license.

The D20 System Trademark License is a different license, provided by WotC to
encourage game producers to develop products that will require the D&D
Players' Handbook for their use.[Back to the Top]

B.03What are the D20 System Trademarks?

The D20
System Trademarks were the words “D20 System” and the image of the red, white,
and black D20 system logo. [Back to the Top]

B.05What does it mean that if product has the “D20 system logo” displayed on
it?

Only
this - that the D&D 3.0 or 3.5 Players Handbook is necessary to understand
how characters are generated and how they advance in level.It DOES NOT mean that the game is in any way
compatible with D&D, although most materiel written with that intent should
certainly make an effort to qualify for the D20.The D20 logo PLUS the word
"Fantasy" on the cover, (along with appropriate cover art) would certainly
tip off potential buyers that the product might be able to be used in a D&D
setting.[Back to the Top]

B.06What is a world-wide, royalty-free, non-exclusive license?

This
means that anybody in the world can use the license, they don't have to pay
royalties, and they understand that they are not the only ones who get to use
the license.This is provided, however
that they adhere to the terms of the license.[Back to the Top]

B.07What is a “restricted term” or “restricted definition”?

Part of
an irrelevant argument – now that the license has been rescinded.

These
are words and concepts that you may not use in your publication in any way
other than as described in the D20 SRD, and still keep the privilege of using
the D20 logo on that publication.The
general public will not have access to the exact list of words until the D20
SRD is released in August 2000.[Back to the Top]

B.08What if WotC changes the "Restricted Terms" list in the future
– couldn’t they do this to mess with potential developers?

Part of
an irrelevant argument – now that the license has been rescinded.

Not
currently.The D20 <DRAFT> STL
currently contains the verbiage, “If the D20 System Reference Document is
revised by Wizards of the Coast, you may use any version of the ‘Restricted
Terms and Definitions’ section of any version of the D20 System Reference
Document issued by Wizards of the Coast.”.This means that all versions of the restricted terms and definitions
list are equally valid.[Back to the Top]

B.09What does “SRD” mean?

D20
System Reference Document.“System
Reference Document” is the term coined by Hasbro to refer to a document which
presents all of the “open” parts of another work or system in a single
place.The “D20 System Reference
Document” is the official “core” part of D&D 3.5 (less character creation
and advancement) – the material that was actually released as “OPEN” by Hasbro
for the D&D system.You can download
the entire system from our site at the links below:

B.10What is the “D20 System Reference Document” (SRD)?

The D20
System Reference Document is the

official
“core” part of D&D 3.5 (less character creation and advancement) – the
material that was actually released as “OPEN” by Hasbro for the D&D
system.You can download the entire
system from our site at the links below:

B.11How come the “D” in “D20” is capitalized in text when people are writing
about it but is shown in lower case on the D20 logo?

We
don’t know, but we think that WotC just thinks it looked cooler that way on the
logo, and people just think it looks better the other way in print.[Back to the Top]

C.CONCERNING THE D20 SYSTEM

C.01What is D20?

The D20
system consists of the entirety of the Core Dungeons & Dragons 3.5 gaming
system – essentially a distillation of the “core gaming system” of D&D3E,
excluding character generation rules and the specific effects of
advancement..“D20” is the (now
RESCINDED) license and logo for third party products based on that system.It was the stated hope of Hasbro that D20 in
fact becomes the industry standard action resolution system for game products,
supplanting the myriad of systems currently being used by game designers.This, of course, did not happen.[Back to the Top]

C.02What constitutes “information on creating
characters?”

Again,
not really relevant because the D20 license no longer exists.Many variants on “D&D 3.5” are now
available around the web that incorporate both character creation and character
advancement.The general public will not
know the exact answer to this question until the D20 System Reference Document
is released in August 2000.Mr. Dancey
has stated, "The rule for character creation is ‘pick a race and class.’
”A general statement has also been made
to the effect that you cannot say "You roll four 6-sided dice and drop the
lowest, adding them together to get an ability score."The essence of this is that your work should
require the D&D Players Handbook for its explanation of character generation
- IF you want to use the "D20 System Trademark.[Back to the Top]

C.03What constitutes “information explaining the
effects on characters of earning experience or advancing in ‘level’"?

The
general public will not know the exact answer to this question until the D20
System Reference Document is released in August 2000.Mr. Dancey has explained this concept by
stating "The process of level advancement is "when a character
exceeds threshold Z in experience points, increment that character's level by
one, either by increasing an existing class by one level, or by taking a new
class at level 1."[Back to the Top]

C.04HELP!I'm trying to develop a D20
game here for GENCON and I just realized that I can’t do that without a copy of
the D20 SRD?

C.05Could I write a product under these rules and say on the box that it was
"compatible" with D&D?

In a
word, NO!But it has become accepted
practice to write products and include the phrase “Compatible with Edition 3.5
of the most popular fantasy role-playing system in history.”

The
D20STL stated:”3.3.3. You may not use the Dungeons & Dragons(R) or Wizards
of the Coast(R) trademarks in advertising or in any material separate from the
Publication, or in any other way other than that described in Section 3.3.1 and
3.3.2.”Section 3.3.1 of the STL stated:
”3.3.1. You may place a notice in the Publication that reads: ‘Requires the use
of the Dungeons & Dragons(R) Player's Handbook, Third Edition, published by
Wizards of the Coast(R).If typography permits, the "(R)" indicia
should be converted to the recognized "circle R" character.

What
this meant was that the most you could do is put “Requires the Use of the
Dungeon & Dragons (R) Players’ Handbook, Third Edition.”This notice can be placed anywhere, including
on the cover of the publication.What
you could do is to put the D20 logo on the cover, at the top of a full color
glossy art piece of an obvious fighter, obvious thief, and obvious mage
standing in an obvious dungeon, holding obvious swords and facing down an
obvious orc.[Back to the Top]

C.06What is an “action resolution system”?

An
action resolution system is a method of determining the outcome of a proposed
action of a character in a RPG game.It
is generally agreed that an action resolution system uses some form of
randomizer, be it a dice role or some other method of determining an
outcome.Note that this explanation is a
simplification. [Back to the Top]

C.07What is the difference between a “flat” or “straight” randomizer and a
“curved”, “bell shaped” or “normal” randomizer in an RPG action resolution
system?

A flat
or straight randomizer (like D20) uses a die roll or some other method where
the probability of occurrence of any number is equally likely, i.e.; it is just
as likely to roll a “1” as it is to roll a “10”, or a “20”.A bell shaped or normal randomizer uses some
method that results in the middle numbers of all the possible outcomes being
more likely than those at the extremes.For instance, the probability of rolling two six-sided dice and rolling
a twelve is 1 chance in 36, while rolling a seven is six times more likely at 6
chances in 36.In a RPG context, the
extremes are much harder to reach on a bell-shaped system.Some people maintain that the actual
realities of combat are more easily modeled using a bell-shaped randomized. [Back to the Top]

C.08Was the D20 effort a successful one?

To
answer that question, you have to define what you mean by “successful”.Any definition of success needs to start with
what the intended goal.Here are some
conclusions based on alternate goals:

1. Was
D20 successful in enhancing Hasbro’s revenue?

In the short run, yes.D20 dramatically enhanced community interest
in the D&D product and (more importantly) allowed Hasbro to focus on
producing high-margin hardcover “rules” books without having to produce
historically low-margin modules and adventure-based supplements.If you doubt this statement, consider that in
the nine years after releasing D&D second edition, TSR released more than
two hundred and ten (210+) adventure modules for use with the D&D 2E
system.In the nine years after
releasing Third Edition, Hasbro released less than twenty (<20) modules for D&D
3.0/3.5.

2. Was
D20 successful in allowing third party producers to develop and market products
for the D&D game?

Absolutely.Many, many companies were able to produce a
truly staggering quantity of content to be used with D&D third
edition.So many in fact that keeping up
with the sheer quantity of products being released became impossible.

3. Was
D20 successful as a marketing brand, recognized an valued by consumers?

No.Ultimately, a glut of products, many of which were knockoffs,
re-compilations of previous work, or of very poor quality resulted in the
devaluation of the brand.This reached a
point of critical mass during the winter of 2005-2006 when the market was so
glutted with D20-based products that were not selling that several key
distributors went out of business.At
this time, gaming stores stopped carrying the vast majority of third-party
products (with the exception of a few proven products from a very top tier of
publishers).By 2007, in conjunction
with the planned D&D 4.0 release, Hasbro marketing representatives went on
record as stating that the D20 brand “had become effectively worthless.”

4. Was
D20 successful in creating and “Open Source Revolution” - what its creator
(Dancey) stated was its actual goal that “… D&D as a game should benefit
from all of the people who work on the Open gaming derivative of D&D.”

No.As an “Open Source Revolution” the OGL/D20 has ultimately been a dismal
failure.See section C.09 below for a
discussion of some of the reasons.All
hope is not lost however.The core
D&D 3.5 Rules as released under OGL can never be “closed” again, and there
are still some efforts out there to extend the 3.5 rules set into a truly open,
truly community supported effort extensible gaming system.

C.09What went wrong with the D20 effort?

The
reason that the D20/OGL effort failed completely as an open source effort lies
in the fatal flaw of the Open Gaming License (OGL).This flaw is known as Paragraph 7, “Product
Identity” or just simply “The Product Identity clause”.Paragraph 7 allows an author of an OGL work
to close unspecified portions of their work for virtually any reason and in
virtually any conceivable way – including a host of ways that effectively make
re-use either impossible or logistically impractical.The problem lies both in the definition of
Product Identity, but also in the total lack of enforcement of the license by
Hasbro once it was released.Here is
clause 7 of the OGL along with the OGL definition of Product Identity:

7. Use of Product Identity: You agree not
to Use any Product Identity, including as an indication as to compatibility,
except as expressly licensed in another, independent Agreement with the owner
of each element of that Product Identity. You agree not to indicate
compatibility or co-adaptability with any Trademark or Registered Trademark in
conjunction with a work containing Open Game Content except as expressly
licensed in another, independent Agreement with the owner of such Trademark or
Registered Trademark. The use of any Product Identity in Open Game Content does
not constitute a challenge to the ownership of that Product Identity. The owner
of any Product Identity used in Open Game Content shall retain all rights,
title and interest in and to that Product Identity.

A true
“open source” effort rests on the notion of what the Free Software people refer
to as a “copyleft” (rather than a “copyright”).A copyleft is a license (e.g. the GNU GPL and the Free Software
Foundation) which stipulates that (without exception) any contribution to the
work automatically also became open source and could be used by anybody else
for any reason.A copyleft is a powerful
social tool, because it prevents anyone from directly profiting from the work
of another person.Not only does this
mean that each person to use a part oftruly open source effort can do so for free, but it contributes to a
sense of community among the various contributors – a tremendous sense of being
part of something bigger than oneself.

As a
result of greed and/or fear on the part of individual D20 producers and lack of
enforcement of their own license by Hasbro, it became common prac tice for an
OGL producer to put something similar to the following statement as the
“Product Identity” statement in virtually all D20 products:

“All
content in this work which is not directly derivative of already open content
is considered product identity.”

The
practical effect of this practice was to make the product unusable for any
re-use whatsoever.The notion of
“derivative” is an entirely subjective one and the courts and the legal
profession have spent millions of dollars and hundreds of years proving exactly
that.Without the fundamental notion of
shared re-use that is so key to any Open Source effort, the whole effort
ultimately came crashing to a halt – at least as far as “Open Source” was
concerned.

D.02What does a copyright protect?

A copyright is a form of intellectual property law,
protects original works of authorship including literary, dramatic, musical,
and artistic works such as poetry, novels, movies, songs, computer software and
architecture. Copyright does not protect
facts, ideas, systems, or methods of operation, although it may protect the way
these things are expressed. Go here to see What Works
Are Protected.[Back to the Top]

D.03When is my work protected?

Your work
is protected under copyright protection the moment it is created and fixed in a
tangible form so that it is perceptible either directly or with the aid of a
machine or device. [Back to the Top]

D.04How long does copyright last?

From
the US COPYRIGHT OFFICE:
The Sonny Bono Copyright Term Extension Act, signed into law on October 27,
1998, amends the provisions concerning duration of copyright protection.
Effective immediately, the terms of copyright are generally extended for an
additional 20 years. Specific provisions are as follows:
* Forworks created after January 1,
1978, copyright protection will endure for the life of the author plus an
additional 70 years. In the case of a joint work, the term lasts for 70
years after the last surviving author’s death.;
* For anonymous and pseudonymous works and works made for hire, the term will
be 95 years from the year of first publication or 120 years from the year of
creation, whichever expires first;

* For
works created but not published or registered before January 1, 1978, the term
endures for life of the author plus 70 years, but in no case will expire
earlier than December 31, 2002. If the work is published before December 31,
2002, the term will not expire before December 31, 2047;

* For
pre-1978 works still in their original or renewal term of copyright,the total term is extended to 95
years from the date that copyright was originally secured. For further
information
SEE Circular 15a. [Back to the Top]

D.06Why can’t gaming systems be copyrighted?

Copyright
does not protect ideas, concepts, systems, or methods of doing something. You
may express your ideas in writing or drawings and claim copyright in your
description, but be aware that copyright will not protect the idea itself as
revealed in your written or artistic work.For additional information, see: http://www.copyright.gov/fls/fl108.html
for additional information.[Back to the Top]

D.07Wow, so I could just take one of
WotC's books, rewrite it, then sell it as my own, right?

Wrong.You cannot
simply rewrite someone else's work and claim it is your own writing.What you COULD do is separate out all of the
details of how the game is played, then write YOUR OWN gaming system that
incorporated the rules and concepts expressed in those rules.You would have to be very careful to use your
own words, though.[Back to the Top]

D.08So I couldn't use words like "Hit Point", or "Armor
Class"?

Yes,
you could.Copyright does not protect
names, titles, slogans, or short phrases.There may be an exception to this, however.The D20 STL refers to a document called the
"Restricted Terms and Phrases List" that will be a list of words that
have special requirements if you want to use the D20.This list is not yet available.You also have to be careful not to run afoul
of trademarks.In some cases, things
like names may be protected as trademarks.WotC has already stated that names Like "Elminster",
"Dungeons and Dragons", and "Forgotten Realms" are
trademarks and they will defend them in court.Contact the U.S. Patent & Trademark
Office for further information.[Back to the Top]

D.09What is a Trademark?

A
TRADEMARK is a word, phrase, symbol or design, or combination of words,
phrases, symbols or designs, which identifies and distinguishes the source of
the goods or services of one party from those of others. A service mark is the
same as a trademark except that it identifies and distinguishes the source of a
service rather than a product. Throughout this booklet the terms "trademark"
and "mark" are used to refer to both trademarks and service marks
whether they are word marks or other types of marks. Normally, a mark for goods
appears on the product or on its packaging, while a service mark appears in
advertising for the services.Trademark
rights arise from either (1) actual use of the mark, or (2) the filing of a
proper application to register a mark in the Patent and Trademark Office (PTO)
stating that the applicant has a bona fide intention to use the mark in
commerce regulated by the U.S. Congress. [Back to the Top]

D.10What is a Derivative Work?

From
the U.S. COPYRIGHT OFFICE:
A “derivative work,” is a work that is based on (or derived from) one or more
already existing works.It is copyrightable
if it includes what the copyright law calls an “original work of
authorship.”Derivative works, also
known as “new versions,” include such works as translations, musical
arrangements, dramatizations, fictionalizations, art reproductions, and
condensations. Any work in which the editorial revisions, annotations,
elaborations, or other modifications represent, as a whole, an original work of
authorship is a “derivative work” or “new version.”A typical example of a derivative work
received for registration in the Copyright Office is one that is primarily a
new work but incorporates some previously published materiel.This previously published material makes the
work a derivative work under the copyright law.To be copyrightable, a derivative work must be different enough from the
original to be regarded as a “new work” or must contain a substantial amount of
new material.Making minor changes or
additions of little substance to a preexisting work will not qualify the work
as a new version for copyright purposes.The new material must be original and copyrightable in itself.Titles, short phrases, and format, for
example, are not copyrightable.[Back to the Top]

D.11What is the difference between (R) and “circle R”?

"(R)
has become a common way to represent the "circle R" symbol which is
commonly used to identify a trademark and denote that the use of that Trademark
is restricted.The "(R)",
unlike the "circle R" has yet to be recognized by a court of law as
an official symbol.[Back to the Top]

D.12What is a copyleft?

Unlike
a copyright, a "copyleft" is a way of forcing everyone to allow
anyone to use a given work pretty much any way they want to, and not be able to
restrict those rights.The GNU Public
License is the foundation of the attempt to create a similar license for
gaming, currently known as the Open Gaming License.Some argue that the Open Gaming License has
several glaring differences from the GNU's copyleft, most notably that the GNU
software foundation distributes all of their Intellectual Property (IP) under
their license with the belief that sharing in this fashion promotes a stronger
industry, while WotC is using the OGL to define a very small subset of their
IP, with market dominance being their stated objective.[Back to the Top]

E.CONCERNING THE D&D GAME

E.01What is D&D3E / D&D 3.5E?

“Dungeons
and Dragons” or “D&D” or “D&D3E” was WotC’s rewrite of the core rules
of Advanced Dungeons and Dragons that have been fundamentally unchanged since
the game’s release in 1978.The product
was officially kicked off in August of 2000 with the release of the D&D
Players Handbook.

D&D
3.5 E was an “upgrade” to the 3.0E system that was released several years
later.The upgrade was ostensible sold
as an “improvement” to the system, but close examination revealed many changes
which were simply arbitrary and which seemed designed solely to make the 3.5
system no longer “compatible” with the 3.0 system.In other words, it seemed as though Hasbro
intentionally wrote 3.5 to capitalize on the success of 3.0, and to force the
market to purchase all new versions of their core books.Edition 3.5 also had the very chilling effect
of making virtually all of the third party D20 material written up to that time
suddenly seem “outdated”.